Page 41 of Evil King

“You haven’t seen how he looks at me now,” I replied. “Maybe it has been a month since the great Cherri fuck-up of the year, but he still seems just as disappointed and angry as he was when it first happened.”

“But…” She sighed. “You guys areobviouslymeant to be together. Just finally end things with Nathan and then approach Deon with an honest, heartfelt apology. Tell him how you feel and that it’ll never happen again.”

I whined. “I sound like Nathan when you describe me like that.”

Avery bobbled her head. “Well, there’s not much I can do about that.” I whacked her arm. “Ow! There isn’t! You didn’t necessarily cheat on Deon, but he made it really clear that he didn’t want to do anything with you until you’d broken up with Nathan.”

I stopped moving where I was and looked at her through a half-lidded gaze. “No, please, keep going. I forgot how fucking dumb I was. Remind me.”

“Sorry,” Avery grumbled, pulling me to walk again. “It’s kind of where you’re at now, though.”

“No, I can make a different decision than Nathan,” I said. “I can be self-sacrificing enough to say that Deon deserves someone better than me. When you describe me in that way, I kind of get the feeling that with Nathan is exactly where I should be.”

“No,” Avery whined. “That’s not true. You made one little mistake. Nathan is an awful, terrible person. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. You and Nathan are totally different, and Deon knows that. Really, I just think it’s worth…”

Avery’s voice faded away, so I looked over at her just in time to see Deon and Sicily walking out of the front office. Avery stopped us from moving any further just as Deon’s eyes landed on us.

“Hi, Deon. Hi, Sicily,” Avery greeted. “How are you guys?” Sicily opened his mouth to speak, but Avery held up her hand. “Why don’t you go second?” she asked, and then she turned an interested gaze to Deon.

Deon looked at Avery for a few seconds, and then his dark gaze fell on me. Behind the tough guy was nothing but disappointment and sadness. I’d almost feel better if he were just plain angry, but what I got instead was way worse. After looking at me for about thirty seconds, damn near causing me to break out into a sweat, he turned his back to us and walked toward the front door to the school and out of sight.

Sicily winced. “Oh, hey, ya know. He’s just a little anti-social. Don’t let it bug ya. See ya, ladies,” With that, he turned and raced after Deon.

“Ouch.” I looked over my shoulder, and Colette was coming up to stand on my right.

“What was that about?” Alistair had walked up and was now on Avery’s left, holding her hand. “He didn’t look too happy.”

“Who knows?” Avery answered for me. “Come on. Let’s go get something to eat. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” Alistair added. “I’ve been wanting to try that new sushi place.”

“Hey!” Colette yelped. “They’re competitors, you know.”

“Obviously,” Alistair responded. “That’s why I want to try it so I can trash it and talk about how much better your family’s place is.”

“You’re a horrible liar, Ali,” Colette growled.

“So I’ve been told.” He pulled on Avery’s arm. “You in?” He looked up at me. “Cherri?”

I waved a hand forward. “Uh, you guys go ahead. I’ll catch up. I just wanna talk to Colette for a few minutes.”

Avery raised an eyebrow at me. “You sure?”

“Totally. Text me and let me know where you end up.”

Avery shook her head. “Okay,” she said, and she and Alistair walked out of the school hand in hand.

When they’d been gone for enough time, I linked my arm through Colette’s arm and started to walk toward the front door as well. Avery was my best friend, and she always gave me sound, logical advice about the right thing to do and the best way to do it. She was calm, cool, and collected, and sometimes, when you were specifically tryingnotto do the right thing, it was best to seek advice from someone like Colette, who made her legacy in being a little more self-serving.

“What’s up?” Colette asked. “I take it things aren’t going well with Mr. Prison?”

Side-stepping the insult, I pressed on. “No. I’m pretty sure I fucked that up for good, so it looks like I’m sticking it out with Nathan. I guess that’s what I’m hoping you can help me with.”

“Honey, I’m not into threesomes,” Colette said.

“No,” I replied. “Not help like that. I, just… How do you do it? How do you separate yourself from an emotional response to something and just view it for what it is? How do I make staying with Nathan make sense since, clearly, that’s what the rest of this year is going to look like for me?”

“Sweetheart, everything in life has a purpose, and if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that when it comes to relationships, the purpose is either true love, like what you would maybe have with Mr. Prison, or the purpose is everything else.”

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